Maine is on the verge of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day

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Apr 20, 2019305

BY: Alex Acquisto

A bill to officially change the name of Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day in Maine received final approval from the Senate on Thursday, paving the way for it to become law. The bill from Rep. Ben Collings, D-Portland, will change the name of the holiday that dates back to the 1930s and falls on the second Monday in October. While Indigenous Peoples Day will be observed in Maine, the name of the federal holiday will remain Columbus Day.

Maine will become the eighth state to make the change, spurred by Democratic lawmakers’ desire to disassociate the state from historic gestures of cultural assimilation and violence against the country’s early Native American inhabitants, perpetuated by Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and other early European settlers.